58 comments:

The Problem with Brigitte Bardot by the Dissident Frogman. This isn't as simple as it may appear.

It never is. Then again, Bardot's affiliation with neo-nazis isn't the point. The fact is, the Euros are essentially criminalizing any criticism of Islam. Mark Steyn is a perfect example of being critical of Islam and being hauled before a tribunal for it. Oriana Fallaci is another example of being hauled to court for 'insulting Islam'.

It would appear that freedom of speech isn't necessarily a universal right in some European countries.

Never was, Hoosier daddy. Spain under the new Moors can't be any worse than Spain under Franco.If All of Europe woke tomorrow and decided to follow Scientology I don't think it matters to the American States one whit.

I enjoy Mark Steyn, but I don't see the threat of Islam in Europe. The continentals decided to allow former colonies and such huge levels of emigration, who are we to feel mock outrage and fear on their behalf?

Europe's history with the east is not the same as ours. Where do you think all those swarthy italians came from?

No, UWS. Fuck you. And you too Trooper for that matter.You clueless asshole, there is a huge difference between christian european immigrants who came to this country to become Americans, to assimilate, and the Muslims who come here purely to profit and have no intention of assimilating.And UWS, your obession with genetics and complexion is laughable and pathetic at the same time.

Dude, you got to relax, you are gonna stoke out. My grandmother came from Ischia to work in a factory and my grandfather jumped the boat to make money where the streets were paved with gold. UWS was just pulling your chain.

Plus a lot of immigrants in the first generation don't want to assimilate. It's the kids that want to be real Americans. As long as we don't kowtow to their demands for separation we should be fine. I mean after all, we even let the Irish in for pity's sake.

TOO FAR GONEFrance is as far gone as we are in Canada where most of the racism snd hstred is imported with immigrant groups but the only people who have to meet the mark for tolerance are the long standing locals. So you're now an enemy of the state if you waggle your ears at some barbaric twit hanging sheep in his doorway? Might as well head for your nearest mosque and sign up for carpet sniffing.

Anytime you hear a Lefty or a college student misinformed by PC and blaming all seething Muslim anger on the Crusades we inflicted on the poor, innocent peace-loving Muslims - just laugh.

The 400 years before the 1st Crusade were a time of unrelenting warfare, enslavement, piracy, and cultural and physical genocide against Europeans and other non-Muslim peoples (Christians were wiped out of the ME, N Africa - Jews made into tools of Muslim leaders. Zoroastrians in Iran, Buddhists in N India physically wiped out, and the beginning of the Hindu Holocaust (where Muslims just couldn't kill enough Hindi to make a dent - much like the Manchus wearied of killing endless Chinese).

Until Europeans learned and became as tough and ruthless as the Jihadi, and the Mongol Horde, by breaking Islam's back, helped save WEstern Civ and the Hindus from eradication.Thus every European should be supremely grateful to the Mongols (who finally were defeated in Camel Land by a caste of warrior slaves whoo were mostly European - the Mamluks.)

The historical record, aside from Muslim blubbering of "endless grievances" precipitated by Euros and Hindis that did not roll over and die or agree to be enslaved or converted at swordpoint by Muslims - is there was a lot of gene-mixing. Sicily, the Balkans, Iberia, and Southern Italy DID have their gene pool changed by Muslim predators raping & screwing every women they could lay hands on - and in Muslim lands - the traces of the 7 million Euros dragged off into slavery, (many sex slavery) between 700 and 1600 are expressed in Muslims with Euro features.

************This history lesson was expressed, Tarantino style, in a way now that could get you arrested in Canada and most Euro countries. Who are intent on apologizing for being such awful hosts to rampaging armies of invading Muslim "guests" or for being so racist and terrible they tried retaking lands once Christian but which had been "purified" into permanent Islamic lands during the Crusades.

Coccotti: Sicilians are great liars. The best in the world. I'm a Sicilian. And my old man was the world heavyweight champion of Sicilian liars. And from growin' up with him I learned the pantomime. Now there are seventeen different things a guy can do when he lies to give him away. A guy has seventeen pantomimes. A woman's got twenty, but a guy's got seventeen. And if you know 'em like ya know your own face, they beat lie detectors to hell. What we got here is a little game of show and tell. You don't wanna show me nothin'. But you're tellin' me everything. Now I know you know where they are. So tell me, before I do some damage you won't walk away from.Cliff: Could I have one of those Chesterfields now?Coccotti: Sure.Cliff: Got a match? Oh, don't bother. I got one. So you're a Sicilian, huh?Coccotti: Uh-huh.Cliff: You know I read a lot. Especially things that have to do with history. I find that shit fascinating. In fact, I don't know if you know this or not, Sicilians were spawned by niggers.Coccotti: Come again?Cliff: It's a fact. Sicilians have nigger blood pumpin' through their hearts. If you don't believe me, look it up. You see, hundreds and hundreds of years ago the Moors conquered Sicily. And Moors are niggers. Way back then, Sicilians were like the wops in northern Italy. Blond hair, blue eyes. But, once the Moors moved in there, they changed the whole country. They did so much fuckin' with the Sicilian women, they changed the blood-line for ever, from blond hair and blue eyes to black hair and dark skin. I find it absolutely amazing to think that to this day, hundreds of years later, Sicilians still carry that nigger gene. I'm just quotin' history. It's a fact. It's written. Your ancestors were niggers. Your great, great, great, great, great-grandmother was fucked by a nigger, and had a half-nigger kid. That is a fact. Now tell me, am I lyin'?(Coccotti, enraged, stops torturing Cliff and blows his brains out, which was Cliff's strategy to avoid revealing where the son that Coccotti wanted to kill, was)

Notice that the busts of roman senators don't quite look like the cast of 'The Sopranos'?

What a freaking racist retard. You do realize that the people of Italy have many different ethnic enclaves. Those in the southern and Sicily area are disctincly different and have always been ethnically different from those in the north near the Swiss border. Those from the Tuscanny area are not exactly the same as those from Florence. This is also why not all Italian cooking is the same. Dishes from the north

And you can tell the "swarthyness" and hair color of, say, Nero or Caligula from a marble statue...how? Muslims may have briefly intermingled with some of the populations of Italy, but they certainly didn't change Italians from blue eyed and blond to Arabic looking. In fact some of the Muslim occupiers were actually Germanic.

As to Bridget Bardot and her case. This is just plain political correctness and Dhimmitude gone amok. Muslim is not a race. It is a religion and has people of many different ethnicities belonging to it. It isn't racism to disagree with a religion any more than it would be called racists to disagree with the Catholic church.

Cedarford might want to re-read his history books if he thinks conversion at sword point was the way the Middle East became Muslim. It was a far more gradual course of action, as the local residents found benefits (largely the avoidance of tax) in converting.

Even the change of language, from Greek, Coptic, Latin, and Aramaic took hundreds of years and there was no compelling reason--other than pure utilitarianism--to do so.

What are we to do when criticizing a belief system - religious, political, or otherwise - is deemed racism? The word must carry different connotations in French.

Things would go a lot more smoothly if more people would grow up and accept that all cultures are not equal, and those that are inferior to ours should be criticized not protected as curiosities. I don't don't have a problem with slaughtering sheep, but I do have a problem with a culture that regards women as being not much better than sheep.

I would agree that secular society and rational thought has a firm foot on the throat of the beast of christianity (..."it is not the love of my christian neighbor that keeps him from burning me...it is the impotence of that love.." -nietzsche)

and that it will take a bit of finageling to tame Islam as well, but I'm confident that learned men and women will be up for the task.

I'm not worried about the enlightened west being able to handle the muslim hordes, I'm worried about christian backwardness using the muslims for their own sectarian ends against the enlightenment.

Slobodan Milosevic is a good example of it.Which is what is disturbing about her being associated with skin-heads in italy.

Sam Harris talked well of making sure it's the secular west that takes care of their fanatics...or we run the risk of our christo-fanatics doing it for us in ways we don't wish.

Do you sell you system to individuals? Cause I only use a simple pump with the rubber seals that they sell in the liquor store. Not that a bottle lasts all that long in my house, but I do have a very nice collection of port and wouldn't mind sealing it.

Trooper York: you can buy the UWS through Ann Althouse's Amazon link on the front of her page. Just type in "ultra wine saver" and it should take you right to our page and you put a little smile on both of our faces.

Keeping Bertrand Russell maxim "evidence against interest" in mind, I do have lots of issues with the efficacy of vacuum pumps as wine preservers and I know that argon is the better way to go (as do the vast majority of vinters and wine tasting rooms).

If you click amazon via Althouse she gets paid also. So think of buying from me as a tip to Ann!

What with my Barbour jacket photo-hunting and all, I'm afraid I'm in a hurry to post as I'm out the door.

But just to say that I feel for poor Bibi.

Just the day after Mark Steyn, the author of "America Alone", goes on trial before the Canadian Human Rights Commission for having the audacity to criticise Islamic practises, or in their words:

"an unwillingness to consider accommodating some of (the) religious beliefs and practices (of Muslims)". It stated the article, and others like it, portrayed "Muslims as all sharing the same negative characteristics, including being a threat to ‘the West’", the effect of which was to further perpetuate and promote "prejudice towards Muslims and others."

Comes this verdict in the self-appointed home of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".

I feel very much for the future of the Old World, as it's going to be macheted at the knees by its own ideals.

This isn't a question of whether or not Bardot is genuinely racist or simply a victim of Islamic hypersensitivity. The question is, should "racism" be a crime in the first place. The correct answer to that question is "no".

Maybe Bardot is a neo-Nazi; I neither know nor care. What I do know is that free societies don't lock you in prison for making offensive remarks.

Revenant said: The question is, should "racism" be a crime in the first place. The correct answer to that question is "no".

Not so fast. Wait just a New York Trooper minute.You don't think it should be a crime to intentionally hurt small children's feelings? Here's what that AP article said:

In the December 2006 letter to Sarkozy, now the president, Bardot said France is "tired of being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts."

Okay but what the AP article left out is what Bardot then viciously sang as she mocked poor Muslim children all across France. Please pardon my not so good French but here's my best translation:

Bardot (sneering, and wearing only a bra and panties): Baa, baa, black sheep,Have you any wool?Yes sir, yes sir,Three bags full.One for the master,One for the dame,But none for the swarthy bloodthirsty little murdering Muslim boy,inexperienced at slaughtering animals and without first even stunning the poor helpless sentient creature, which, by the way was most likely imported from Britain or Ireland, causes the innocent animal unnecessary suffering Who lives down the lane.

Obviously, the fine imposed on her by the court was no more than a slap on her racist child-abusing evil wrist. We should have seen this coming 40 years ago.

What I do know is that free societies don't lock you in prison for making offensive remarks.

Who ever said any country or nation on the Continent of Europe has ever been a free society in the Anglo-Saxon sense?

Free speech is an American construct derived from English common law and the Enlightenment. The French State also has its origins in Enlightenment ideals, but somehow Liberté never quite meant the same thing to the Directory or Napoléon as British and American Liberty did to our citizens.

With the not surprising spread of "human rights" commissions, the United States may prove to be last place on the planet where some vague remnant of the freedom to say what you believe remains.

Who ever said any country or nation on the Continent of Europe has ever been a free society in the Anglo-Saxon sense?

Free speech is an American construct derived from English common law and the Enlightenment.

Theo, I think the Dutch for one, would take exception to what you wrote.

BTW, I agree with you. It's not that.

But whilst we Anglo-Saxon nations concentrate on freedom of speech and expression, other nations with equal traditions of personal liberties, feel freedom from irresponsible speech and expression is vital.

An important difference, and which goes a long way to explain why Germany, Austria but also Switzerland and France ban any Nazi paraphenalia and old German movies in their country.

Victoria--Yes, I forgot about those cranky yet laid-back Dutch. But I always think of them as Englishmen who somehow got stuck on the Continent ;-)

(I say this as someone who almost married a Dutch woman. I think she'd kick me in the shins if I said that to her face.)

But as we're seeing, even in Holland, the destination of oppressed exiles from Spinoza to Anne Frank, that saying anything untoward about the looney left's favorite religion will get you killed. And the authorities will be worse than useless to do anything about it. Better to be tolerant of those who would end toleration than to actually engage in the occasional unpleasantness necessary to protect individual liberty.

It seems that about the only thing about the so-called Enlightenment that remains in effect on the Continent is its anti-Christian bias. UWS Guy's nonsensical ruminations notwithstanding, it's not at all clear that the declining rump of European society will do anything to protect or sustain the rest of it. Yes, under UWS Guy's formulation you might have to get a license from the Ministry of Religion to cut your sheep's throat. To whom should you apply before you do the same to Theo van Gogh?

BTW, I should have written, "...where some vague remnant of the freedom to say what you believe persists. My editor turned in early tonight.